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Song Lyrics: Om
Parthaya Pratibodhitam (Gita Dhyana)
Purport Author: A.C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami
VERSES 1 AND 2:
Sripada
Sankaracarya was an impersonalist from the materialistic point of view. But he
never denied the spiritual form known as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, or the
eternal, all-blissful form of knowledge that existed before the material
creation. When he spoke of Supreme Brahman as impersonal, he meant that the
Lord’s sac-cid-ananda form was not to be confused with a material conception of
personality. In the very beginning of his commentary on the Gita, he maintains
that Narayana, the Supreme Lord, is transcendental to the material creation.
The Lord existed before the creation as the transcendental personality, and He
has nothing to do with material personality. Lord Krsna is the same Supreme
Personality, and He has no connection with a material body. He descends in His
spiritual, eternal form, but foolish people mistake His body to be like ours.
Sankara’s preaching of impersonalism is especially meant for teaching foolish
persons who consider Krsna to be an ordinary man composed of matter.
No
one would care to read the Gita if it had been spoken by a material man, and
certainly Vyasadeva would not have bothered to incorporate it into the history
of the Mahabharata. According to the above verses, Mahabharata is the history
of the ancient world, and Vyasadeva is the writer of this great epic. The
Bhagavad-gita is identical with Krsna; and because Krsna is the Absolute
Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between Krsna and His
words. Therefore the Bhagavad-gita is as worshipable as Lord Krsna Himself,
both being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gita “as is” actually hears the
words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord. But unfortunate persons say
that the Gita is too antiquated for the modern man, who wants to find out God by
speculation or meditation.
VERSE 3:
Sripada
Sankaracarya explicitly says, “You fools, just worship Govinda and that
Bhagavad-gita spoken by Narayana Himself,” yet foolish people still conduct
their research work to find out Narayana; consequently they are wretched, and
they waste their time for nothing. Narayana is never wretched nor daridra;
rather, He is worshiped by the goddess of fortune, Laksmi, as well as by all
living entities. Sankara declared himself to be “Brahman,” but he admits
Narayana, or Krsna, to be the Supreme Personality who is beyond the material
creation. He offers his respects to Krsna as the Supreme Brahman, or
Parabrahman, because He (Krsna) is worshipable by everyone. Only the fools and
enemies of Krsna, who cannot understand what the Bhagavad-gita is (though they
make commentaries on it), say, “It is not the personal Krsna to whom we have to
surrender ourselves utterly, but the unborn, beginningless Eternal who speaks
through Krsna.” Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whereas Sankara, the
greatest of the impersonalists, offers his due respects to Krsna and His book
the Bhagavad-gita, the foolish say that “we need not surrender to the personal
Krsna.” Such unenlightened people do not know that Krsna is absolute and that
there is no difference between His inside and outside. The difference of inside
and outside is experienced in the dual, material world. In the absolute world
there is no such difference, because in the absolute everything is spiritual
(sac-cid-ananda), and Narayana, or Krsna, belongs to the absolute world. In the
absolute world there is only the factual personality, and there is no
distinction between body and soul.
VERSE 4:
Unless
one understands spiritual variegatedness, one cannot understand the transcendental
pastimes of the Lord. In the Brahma-samhita it is said that Krsna’s name, form,
quality, pastimes, entourage, and paraphernalia are all ananda-cinmaya-rasa–in
short, everything of His transcendental association is of the same composition
of spiritual bliss, knowledge, and eternity. There is no end to His name, form,
etc., unlike in the material world, where all things have their end. As stated
in the Bhagavad-gita, only fools deride Him; whereas it is Sankara, the
greatest impersonalist, who worships Him, His cows, and His pastimes as the son
of Vasudeva and pleasure of Devaki.
VERSE 5:
Sankara
describes Him as the son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Does he mean thereby that he
is worshiping an ordinary, material man? He worships Krsna because he knows
that Krsna’s birth and activities are all supernatural. As stated in the
Bhagavad-gita (4.9), Krsna’s birth and activities are mysterious and
transcendental, and therefore only the devotees of Krsna can know them
perfectly. Sankara was not such a fool that he would accept Krsna as an
ordinary man and at the same time offer Him all devotional obeisances, knowing
Him as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. According to the Bhagavad-gita, only by
knowing the transcendental birth and activities of Krsna can one attain liberation
by acquiring a spiritual form like Krsna’s. There are five different kinds of
liberation. One who merges into the spiritual auras of Krsna, known as the
impersonal Brahman effulgence, does not fully develop his spiritual body. But
one who fully develops his spiritual existence becomes an associate of Narayana
or Krsna in different spiritual abodes. One who enters into the abode of
Narayana develops a spiritual form exactly like Narayana’s (four-handed), and
one who enters into the highest spiritual abode of Krsna, known as Goloka
Vrndavana, develops a spiritual form of two hands like Krsna’s. Sankara, as an
incarnation of Lord Siva, knows all these spiritual existences, but he did not
disclose them to his then Buddhist followers because it was impossible for them
to know about the spiritual world. Lord Buddha preached that void is the
ultimate goal, so how could his followers understand spiritual variegatedness?
Therefore Sankara said, brahma satyam jagan mithya, or, material variegatedness
is false but spiritual variegatedness is fact. In the Padma Purana Lord Siva
has admitted that he had to preach the philosophy of maya, or illusion, in the
Kali-yuga as another edition of the “void” philosophy of Buddha. He had to do
this by the order of the Lord for specific reasons. He disclosed his real mind, however, by recommending that people worship Krsna,
for no one can be saved simply by mental speculations composed of word jugglery
and grammatical maneuvers. Sankara further instructs:
bhaja
govindam bhaja govindam
bhaja
govindam mudha-mate
samprapte sannihite kale
na hi
na hi raksati dukrn-karane
“You
intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship
Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not save you at the time
of death.”
VERSES 6, 7, AND 8:
Foolish
followers of foolish speculators cannot understand the meaning of offering
salutations to Lord Krsna, the embodiment of bliss. Sankara himself offered his
salutations to Lord Krsna so that some of his intelligent followers might
understand the real fact by the example set by their great master, Sankara, the
incarnation of Lord Siva. But there are many obstinate followers of Sankara who
refuse to offer their salutations to Lord Krsna and instead mislead innocent persons
by injecting materialism into the Bhagavad-gita and confusing innocent readers
by their commentaries, and consequently the readers never have the opportunity
to become blessed by offering salutations to Lord Krsna, the cause of all
causes. The greatest disservice to humanity is to keep mankind in darkness
about the science of Krsna, or Krsna consciousness, by distorting the sense of
the Gita.
VERSE 9:
By
recitation of the ninth verse of his meditation, quoted from the
Srimad-Bhagavatam, Sankara has indicated that Lord Krsna is worshipable by one
and all, including himself. He gives hints to materialists, impersonalists,
mental speculators, “void” philosophers, and all other candidates subjected to
the punishment of material miseries–just offer salutations to Lord Krsna, who
is worshiped by Brahma, Siva, Varuna, Indra, and all other demigods. He has not
mentioned, however, the name of Visnu, because Visnu is identical with Krsna.
The Vedas and the Upanisads are meant for understanding the process by which
one can surrender unto Krsna. The yogis try to see Him (Krsna) within
themselves by meditation. In other words, it is for all the demigods and demons
who do not know where the ultimate end is that Sankara teaches, and he
especially instructs the demons and the fools to offer salutations to Krsna and
His words, the Bhagavad-gita, by following in his footsteps. Only by such acts
will the demons be benefited, not by misleading their innocent followers by
so-called mental speculations or show-bottle meditations.
Sankara
directly offers salutations to Krsna, as if to show the fools, who are
searching after light, that here ls light like the sun. But the fallen demons
are like owls that will not open their eyes on account of their fear of the
sunlight itself. These owls will never open their eyes to see the sublime light
of Krsna and His words the Bhagavad-gita. They will, however, comment on the
Gita with their closed owl-eyes to mislead their unfortunate readers and
followers. Sankara, however, discloses the light to his less intelligent
followers and shows that the Bhagavad-gita and Krsna are the only source of
light. This is all to teach the sincere seekers of truth to offer salutation to
Lord Krsna and thus surrender unto Him without misgivings. That is the highest
perfection of life, and that is the highest teaching of Sankara, the great
learned scholar whose teachings drove the voidist philosophy of Buddha out of
UPDATED: April 1, 2009